I came across some tracks I worked on recently I’d either forgotten about or didn’t know about! I was trying to keep on top of my PPL claims and a good way to find out release info is on discogs.com.
Closer Than Close (Rosie Gaines – Paul Roberts and Paul Birchall mix) I’d never heard completed.
Never heard Thank You Lord (Connie Harvey – Audiowhores mix), but at least I recalled doing the strings for both of those.
Right Where You Are (Amp Fiddler) was a surprise though; I recognise the lines but had no idea it was an Amp Fiddler track! I’d have done this with Dave Jones (Zed Bias) – his sessions were always just a series of backing tracks for various artists. We’d bang out as many as possible in a session. I’m sure he told me who the artists were but it was all a bit of a blur!
Then there was a credit for Do You Want To Be Someone, by The Lazarus Plot. The track is on their myspace and I don’t think they ever contacted me, but what they’ve done is take the copyright free samples and worked them into a track. Excellent! I did those samples ages ago and I’m really pleased they getting some use. (In fact I’m working on a new loops library – should be finished in the next month or so.) The sample is drastically slowed down, so it sounds a bit tatty, but the band is getting loads of good reviews.
Speaking of tatty (or scruffy at least) , I played on a Mr Scruff track last year, produced by Andy Kingslow and recorded at his studio near Sankey Soap in Manchester. All I played along with was a basic backing track but just listen to it now! It’s called Kalimba and it’s on Ninja Tune Records. Mr Scruff – great example of a musician as a brand! Reviews for this are good too, here’s one from The Times, with a big-up for the strings.